ABBEY GATE COLLEGE

Site of a medieval monastic grange which was mainly agricultural in function until converted into a residence in the 15th century. The only medieval building still standing is the gatehouse, dating from 1490, which forms the entrance porch of the Victorian house which now occupies the site. The gatehouse is three storeyed and built of red sandstone with a stair turret to the rear left. The remainder of the monastic site was demolished in 1861 and replaced by a two storey sandstone building which forms the right wing of the present house. The building was extended in 1876. The chapel was built circa 1870, also in sandstone. The house was converted into a school in 1977. Part of the medieval boundary wall also survives, to the north and west of the site. The wall is built of sandstone rubble and stands on bedrock, on the edge of a rock cutting. It is thought to have been intended as a form of light fortification. The monastic site was granted a licence to crenellate in 1399, which was confirmed in 1410.

"Saighton was one of the three castellated residences of the abbot of St.Werburgh. Little of the original building besides the great gateway, is remaining, which was built by Simon Ripley c.1489.......The exterior arch is pointed; beyond this are several others of various forms, but more rounded and the slide for the portcullis is very perfect. On the west side of the gateway is a turret containing a spiral staircase. The gateway has now been restored and additions and improvements made. (2)

Saighton was an important grange and abbots residence dependent on the Benedictine Abbey of Chester [1093-1539] The remains are incorporated into the present building. (3)

"Licences to crenellate[ Saighton Grange ] were granted.....in the 22nd Richard II, A.D.1398, and the 11th Henry IV AD.1410. The only part which remains is the gatehouse, which does not agree with these dates. It is evidently of two periods but the original part seems earlier and the alterations later. A Jacobean house has been joined on to the gatehouse". (4)

"Such small portion of pre-Reformation work as remains at Saighton belongs to the close of the fifteenth century..... The second Marquess of Westminster.....rebuilt the house in 1861 from designs furnished by Mr. E. Hodkinson. Every vestige of old work except the gateway was swept away and new buildings..... set up" (5)

Further references. (6-9)

SJ 443096180 Description in 2 correct except that the slide for the portcullis is no longer visible. The gatehouse which is much restored is of three stories and now forms the porch and entrance to Saighton Grange which is entirely modern (datestone inscribed 1876). In plan the gatehouse measures 7.0m. NE-SW and 4.5m.NW-SE and is approx 11.0m. high with the turret containing the staircase projecting a little above. The main entrance arch is pointed, with a four-centred inner arch. The passage has a modern wooden ceiling. Traces of antiquity include small rectangular windows, round-headed mullioned windows, a blocked pointed doorway on the NE side, and an oriel window and a niche containing a mutilated figure on the SW. side. The garden wall to the west of the building is situated on the edge of a rock cutting. Although much restored it shows many traces of old work and has a thickness of 1.2m. in places. The wall has no dateable features but possibly represents the remains of the precinct wall of the grange. Many of the ornamental walls in the garden have apparently been built from old materials and at SJ 44276182 two stone walls have been bridged with three rounded headed door or window lintels, each cut from a single block. The gatehouse is in good condition. Saighton Grange is at present unoccupied. (10)

Saighton Grange is as described Auth 10 except that it is now occupied as a residence by Colonel Grosvenor who confirmed that the name Saighton Grange is still applicable. Traces of probable early work are visible in the exterior of the west wall (indicated on 25" am). The interior of this wall had been rebuilt and strenghtened and only here is the wall as much as 1.2 metres in thickness. (11)

As described. The gatehouse is a good example of its period. See G.P. AO/64/225/6. (12)

No change since reports of 12.11.54, 26.8.59 and 20.7.64. Published 1;2500 survey of 1960 correct. (13)

SJ 46 SW SAIGHTON C.P. CHAPEL LANE (East side) 3/170 Abbey Gate College Gatehouse (formerly listed as Saighton Grange) Gateway 1/6/1967 Grade I Gatehouse, 1490, for Abbot Ripley of St Werburgh's Benedictine Abbey, Chester. Saighton Grange Gatehouse and buildings of Ince Manor, Ellesmere Port (q.v.) are the only surviving monastic manorial buildings in Cheshire. Red sandstone. Three storeys including archway. The corners left and right of the archway are recessed, and corbelled above to the main wall face. The four-centred arch (with hoodmould) contains 2 recessed segmental arches. There is a blocked arch in the right-side. The second storey has a narrow single-light window over the crown of the entrance, one lancet to the front and one to the side of the left corner and a crenel to the right. A shared moulded cill links the lancets to an ornate oriel of 3 arched lights in the left wall. In the right wall is an inserted small, bevelled rectangular window (one light). String courses at second floor and third storey cill level. The third storey has mullioned windows of 4 arched lights, paired to the front and one in each side. All glazing is leaded. The crenellated parapet, with moulded string, projects. The raised, niched merlon, left, contains a stone statue. A taller, square stair turret stands at the rear left corner. Within the gatehouse archway is a blank embrasure to each side. The rear corners of the archway are bevelled, as if they were reveals to a former back arch to the gateway. The Victorian Grange (q.v.) abuts.

3/171 Abbey Gate College (formerly Saighton Grange), the main block except the gatehouse GV II House (now the main block of Abbeygate College), the right wing 1861 by Edward Hodkinson for 2nd Marquis of Westminster and the front wing built of extended 1876 for the 1st Duke. The Hall immediately behind the Gatehouse (q.v.) may be earlier C19. Red sandstone with roofs of banded shaped tiles. The 2-storey front wing, with 2 bays left of the Gatehouse and 3 right, of Tudor character has battlements, crow-stepped gables and tall chimneys with circular flues on weathered plinths. Windows with concave bevelled mullions and transomes and moulded reveals have large-pane wooden casements. Shaped framed and boarded oak door on ornate wrought iron hinges. The right wing (2 storeys) has 3 stone-fronted gables to half dormers on inner face and 3-storey cross-gabled terminal, left. Four tall ridge chimneys have round flues on weathered plinths. Large-pane timber casements, hollow-bervelled mullions and transomes and double-bevelled reveals. The hall (front wing) has Gothick double doors each of 3 panels, under a moulded arch. Ionic surrounds to 2 inlaid 6-panel doors, left; U-shaped stone stair with square iron balusters and a grooved handrail of hardwood, rear; Ionic colonnades of 2 columns and 2 end pilasters to each storey, right. Over the stairwell is a circular rooflight with 12 radial bars separated by segmental bars at circumference set in a plaster ceiling of square recessed panels.

3/172 Abbey Gate College Chapel (formerly Saighton Grange Chapel) GV II Chapel, circa 1870, for 2nd or 3rd Marquis of Westminster. Red sandstone with tiled roof. A gabled, rectangular building, simple in expression. The open gable belfry has one bell under a short, square spire. A tall stone chimney, on ridge, has a round flue. Recessed porch in (ritual) south-west corner opens under a corbelled stone lintel to the end and under two post-and-lintel openings to the side. Four stained glass windows on (ritual) south side, 3 with late C19 glass, 1 late C20. Cross in patterned brickwork in (ritual) south gable. Hardwood door of 6 double panels. Designed in conjunction with, and to complement the character of the Grange.

3/173 Boundary wall north and west of Abbey Gate College 1/6/1967 GV II Walls, probably medieval, with subsequent repairs and alterations and gateposts circa 1870. Red sandstone. The walls stand on sandstone bedrock; the inner face (to the Grange garden) is between 2 and 4 feet high, the outer face (including the exposed outcrop) up to 15 feet high. The intention of light fortification appears probable. The north wall is of irregular coursed rubble, slightly battered, with a vertical projection towards the east end and a raised parapet. The west wall is of squared snecked rubble; gateposts of sandstone at the south end have pyramidal finials and bear, on shields, the Grosvenor sheaf, left, and a talbot dog, right. (14)(15)

a. Saighton Grange became a school in 1977. The Gatehouse is as described.

b. Boundary wall as described. The gate-post SJ 44266177 has been recently repaired after slight damage by a bulldozer. (16)